The invention relates generally to a wide body truck and, more particularly to an off the highway truck wide body truck having movable mirror guards for preventing side rearview mirrors from being broken by material spilling over the wide body during the filling operation.
Trucks that operate off the highway are not restricted to the maximum highway width. Off the highway wide body dump trucks are utilized in earth moving and mining operations where large quantities of material is loaded into the wide body dump truck and driven to a location where it is dumped. When utilized in a coal mining operation the width of wide width dump body may be increased, since coal has a lower density than rock and earth. Side rearview mirrors are required for safe operation of these trucks. If one of the mirrors is broken, government regulations require that the truck be taken out of service and that the mirror be replaced before the truck goes back into service. The large capital investment in these trucks makes any down time very costly. Prior to this invention, the side rearview mirrors were protected by mirror guards welded to the truck body this increased the overall width of the truck body. Normal maintenance and repairs of the wide body dump trucks is done in a repair shop so the wide body must fit through the repair shop door. Thus, the width and height of the wide body off the highway dump trucks is limited by the size of the door opening in the repair shop.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems or disadvantages associated with the prior art.
In one aspect of the present invention a wide body for an off the highway truck has a cab and a side rearview mirror viewable from the cab and movable between a position within the width of wide body and a position beyond the width of the wide body. The wide body comprises a maximized width, a canopy extending over the cab, the canopy having a width generally equal to the width of the wide body and a movable mirror guard. The movable mirror guard has a stationary portion rigidly fastened to the canopy within the width of the wide body and a movable portion movably attached to the stationary portion. The movable portion is movable between a position within the width of the wide body and a position beyond the width of the wide body and over the side rearview mirror when the side rearview mirror is positioned beyond the width of the wide body. The movable mirror guard and the side rearview mirror cooperate to allow the wide dump body to fit within a space slightly wider than the wide dump body when being positioned within the width of the wide body and cooperate to prevent a material spilling over the side of the wide body during filling operation from breaking the mirror and putting the truck out of service when being positioned beyond the width of the wide body.